This I Believe

A year ago I told a friend that I was inspired to make a submission on behalf of Edward R. Murrow’s legacy to This I Believe. I’ve raised children, I am passionate about my extended family, friends, and a number of causes for which I work. I have run a successful private school for twenty-three years, mid-wifed babies and never lost hope. “But I have no idea what to write,” I said. ” what is it I believe?” His quick response was my great gift, “If you don’t know what you believe in, you need a vacation.”

It’s been a hard year for me and even though I smiled every time I thought of what he said, I was still too tight to let it go. I’d made this little work of writing too important. A year later, just yesterday afternoon I was waiting for a friend outside a restaurant in New York City in my car. The floor was filled with sand and residue from another summer day and I laughed out loud, surrounded by emblematic simplicity and began to write on the back of my parking stub from last week’s baseball game. In this I believe:

I believe in sand in the car and plastic buckets and in the good mess of summer. I believe in fireflies temporarily in a jar and June bugs gathering around porch lights. I believe in rushing inside so they won’t get in while at the same time I believe in all the things that can’t be rushed. I believe in fresh air through open windows. I believe in a lazy good night’s sleep. I believe in charcoal grills and coolers filled with lunch. I believe in the inconvenience of eating outdoors and I believe in iced coffee and also champagne in paper cups because there are certain things that are only great in summer. I believe in lemonade stands and double decker ice cream cones and left over sparklers on the 5th of July.

I believe in flip flops and espadrilles and drawstring pants and baseball caps worn backwards. I believe in skipping stones and sitting in the sun. I believe in summer resolutions and the foolish fantasy this is the season that will stretch to impossible lengths. When summer comes I always believe there’s time enough to learn to dance, speak a new language, write the novel, fall in love. I believe in comic books, inconsequential novels and mushy movie reruns. I believe in sleeping late even thought it’s impossible when summer’s light knocks the day alive. I believe in making jam and porch swings and baseball. I believe in board games and inside jokes and jigsaw puzzles that just don’t get done. I believe in wet towels on the bathroom floor and vegetables from the garden, relatives that visit and I believe in shooting stars for wishes that will come true.

I believe in how little it takes to remind us how accessible a wealthy life of simple pleasure is . . . when we are granted summer.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.